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FATHER IVAN KULIGHIN - RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AS THE PRESERVATION OF HUMANITY
Abstract
The paper, as the title has announced, proposes a discussion about the religious dimension of Education provided by Father Ivan Kulîghin, major personality. Attempts of his biography to have been reconstituted caused, in time, various controversies. Monk Ivan Kulîghin was born on the 24th of February to Elet (Orel) in Russia. He belonged to one of the greatest spiritual Russian centers, Valaamo Monastery, which after the communisms installation, had been savagely destroyed by the Soviets. So, the Russian monk had a personal experience of hearts prayer and thus he could teach the methods and the secrets of this prayer. The presence of Father Ivan Kulîghin proved providential for The Burning Altar movement, because at the same time a paradigm of a homo religious was established. His teachings, but especially his acceptance of the supreme sacrifice with dignity prepared his disciples for the feeble accession, on the way to Golgotha, towards deification. Two manuscripts and an icon of the Burning Altar were all wealth that monk John Kulîghin had brought, but these things, trifling by appearance, at the proper time would prove its godly and its mystery value. The Sbornik an anthology made in Valaamo from the texts of the Russian fathers about the hearts prayer and its practice and The Russian Pilgrim (or A Russian Pilgrims Sincere Confessions to his confessor regarding the pray of Jesus) were translated, multiplied and spread quickly, in great secret, in dozens of copies. Practically, at the same time with these two manuscripts, we could speak about the beginning of a very efficient Romanian spiritually, way of printing censored works, made in most part by ascetic and mystical texts, by prayers and lives of saints, but also by translations from some Russian philosophers which activated in XVIIIXIX centuries: Homiakov, Berdiaev, ?estov, Florenski, Karsavin, Bulgakov, but also Florovsky and Bakunin. About the attitude of the integrated intellectuals of The Burning Altar, regarding the religious Russian philosophy, those intuited in this a sort of Russian Baroque and that on the authoritys scale only the philocalic tradition had been remained untouched, restituted by Paisie Velicikovski. Ostracized under communist totalitarianism, both secular intellectuals and clerics were aware of their duty to discover the deep spiritual levels of Christianity to provide a possibility to survive as a human beings against the aggression of an aberrant modernity. The question is whether The Burning Altar was already a well-established movement when Sandu Tudor discovered Father Ivan Kulîghin. Romanian historiography contains divergent views regarding this matter. Thus, some believe that we can talk about this move only after the arrival of Russian monk. In our attempt to reconstruct a truthful image of The Burning Altar in that time, we combine the documents from the C.N.S.A.S. (National Council for Studying the Security Archives) archive with memoirs but also with the interview of the only person who, nowadays, can testify about what the prayer of the heart meant for students, but also for the elders who belonged to this spiritual movement - Father Nicolae Borda?iu.
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References15
The Confessor Foreigner John (from The Burning Altar archives), edition supervised by professor Gheorghe Vasilescu with an afterword by Archimandrite Sofian Boghiu, Anastasia Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania, 1999, p. 116 [Cuviosul Ioan cel Străin (din arhiva Rugului Aprins), ediție alcătuită de prof. Gheorghe Vasilescu, cu o postfață de arhim. Sofian Boghiu, Ed. Anastasia, Bucureşti, 1999, p. 116].
†Antonie PLĂMĂDEALĂ, The Burning Altar, Archbishop of Sibiu Publishing House, Sibiu, Romania, 2002,p.16 [Rugul Aprins, Ed. Arhiepiscopia Sibiului, Sibiu, ediție electronică, p. 16].
Mihai RĂDULESCU, „The Burning Altar” from Antim Monastery to Aiud, Ramida Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania, 1998, p. 138 [Mihai RĂDULESCU, „Rugul Aprins” de la Mânăstirea Antim la Aiud, Ed. Ramida, București, 1998, p. 138].
„Interviu cu Părintele Nicolae Bordașiu” în Carmen CIORNEA, Chipul Rugului Aprins, Ed. Eikon, București, 2015, p. 253
André SCRIMA, The time of the Burning Altar,Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania, 2012, p. 159 [André SCRIMA, Timpul Rugului Aprins, Ed. Humanitas, București, 2012, p. 159].
André SCRIMA, work cited, p. 152 [André SCRIMA, op. cit.,p. 152].
Sofian BOGHIU, Contemporary Romanian Confessors, edition supervised by Ioana Iancovescu and Constanţa Costea, Bizantin Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania, 2007, p. 119 [Sofian BOGHIU, Duhovnici români contemporani, ediţie îngrijită de Ioana Iancovescu şi Constanţa Costea, Ed. Bizantină, Bucureşti, 2007, p. 119].
Sofian BOGHIU, work cited, p. 29 [Sofian BOGHIU, op. cit., p. 29].
A.C.N.S.A.S., fond Penal, dosar nr. 000202, vol. 2, f. 159.
See National Council for Studying the Security Archives, Penal section, file no. 000202, vol. 1, f. 194 where Father Benedict Ghiuș, in the interogatory, was saying the following: "The idea of this form of religious activity" The Burning Altar"was brought by Father John Kulîghin, which had come from Rostov-USSR during the Soviet war, being brought by fascist troops and established at the Cernica monastery. Since Father Daniel Alexandru Teodorescu, who was then «brother» in the Antim monastery, had been on Mount Athos, Greece and studied on this activity, became head of the association 'The Burning Altar." We note two aspects. The first is that Father Benedict Ghiuş within the same interrogatory minutes, mentioned that he had started to attend the "Burning Altar" meetings in 1946, when the group already existed and the second is that the frameworks of the "anti-Soviet war", respectively the "fascist forces" belonged rather to the investigator’s terminology.
Carmen CIORNEA, work cited, pp. 253-254 [Carmen CIORNEA, op. cit., pp. 253-254].
See Dennis DELETANT, „ Introductive Study. Security and the Police State in Romania (1948-1989”), in Marius OPREA, The Banality of Evil.A History of the Security in documents 1949-1958, vol. I, Bucharest, INST, 2001, pp. 48-49 [A se vedea Dennis DELETANT, „Studiu introductiv. Securitatea și statul polițienesc în România (1948-1989”), în Marius OPREA, Banalitatea răului. O istorie a Securității în documente 1949-1958, vol. I, București, INST, 2001, pp. 48-49].
Hieroschemamonk Daniil Sandu Tudor, The Arcanum of the Burning Altar. Unpublished writings and documents, supervised by prof. Gheorghe Vasilescu, Anastasia Publishing House, Bucharest, 1999, p. 51, p.125. The letter specifies the locality – „ Cernica Monastery” – and it is signed: „John, the Foreign Priest” [Ieroschimonahul Daniil Sandu Tudor, Taina Rugului Aprins. Scrieri şi documente inedite, ed. cit., p.125 Scrisoarea precizează localitatea – „Mânăstirea Cernica” – și este semnată: „Ioan, Părintele cel Străin].
Ibidem, p. 54.
Ibidem, p. 61.
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